NYDN: For First Time NYPD Program Will Connect Communities To Their Sector Rank-And-File Officers

The NYPD will announce on Tuesday a program that promises to bring cops closer to the people they serve — allowing rank-and-file officers for the first time to hold community meetings in the sectors they patrol.

Four pilot meetings were held in March, but the quarterly informal gatherings begin in earnest in the 44th Precinct in the Bronx. There are 166 more meetings on tap through July in the 43 precincts that now have neighborhood coordination officers, or NCOs.

“We’ve been talking about building trust,” Police Commissioner James O’Neill told the Daily News. “This gives people the chance to give us feedback in regularly scheduled meetings. It’s also important to show the cops that we respect them and trust them.”